For starters, there is no such thing as just a meeting. Every meeting poses opportunities for discussion, generating ideas, producing outcomes and positioning yourself with your peers. Whether it’s a quick update or weekly requirement, the impression you make on peers can indirectly affect your raises and promotions. That means you have to prepare.

Take the case of a senior executive I’ll call Robert. He’s brilliant which is why he heads up a multi-million dollar business division at his company, but his boss says he doesn’t offer much at meetings, that he “talks to simply talk” and he “needs to understand the right time to speak and the right time to shut up.” Additionally, the boss says Robert doesn’t fully engage people below him so he appears snobbish and aloof.

Robert had a completely different take on this. He told me he doesn’t want to “show off” so most of the time he remains quiet but then feels as if he should have said something so he tries to come up with remarks on the spot which typically don’t add much to the conversation. He also said that most of the people at these meetings don’t understand the high level information he deals with so it’s easier to just sit back as opposed to trying to “dumb it down” for them. The unintended result is Robert comes across as someone who doesn’t have a strong plan and is not very interested in what others have to say. Privately, his boss told me if he doesn’t step up to the plate, his future at this company is at risk.

As Robert and I started to tackle his dilemma, something else emerged. Robert confided that he was a bit intimidated to speak up for fear of not measuring up to his boss, a charismatic impressive speaker who had the ability to deliver a “pithy” message on the spot. This was a tough one.

We began by identifying Robert’s goals which we would tackle over a period of time:

• Developing more visibility and influence
• Executing views in meetings and presentations
• Better engagement with people to advocate position
• Improve leadership skills to present vision and strategy

In our own meetings, we role-played some of his meetings and came up with the following strategies to help him develop a more dominant and influential voice.

Coaching Notes

• Don’t treat your meetings as just another meeting. Before every meeting, recognize the opportunity in advance. Will a greater understanding of the information prompt management to make a greater investment? Can you put research in perspective for those who don’t have your level of knowledge so they are engaged in your work and the conversation at hand?

• To avoid feeling like you have to come up with remarks on the spot, identify two or three things you may want to talk about in advance This way, if someone heads in that direction, you are prepared to add to the conversation or to bring up an idea that has not been discussed.

• Use open ended and clarifying questions to draw others out and help facilitate the conversation. Questions such as: “so what you are saying is” or “if I understand you correctly, you are suggesting”. Sometimes, repeating what they say in a different manner and raising a question is also helpful. Example: “So Jeff, if we continue with the current schedule you’ve outlined, does that mean we will hit our goal before the end of the year?”

• If you are expected to provide an update or status report, prepare a simple one pager that you can distribute to people at the meeting to keep you on track and help them digest the concepts. Practice your delivery out-loud before the meeting.

• Instead of comparing yourself to others or fearing you may not impress people, think of meetings as an opportunity to share information that is important for others to understand and that may help your boss and others make decisions.

• If you think of something to add while someone else is speaking, jot it down so you can add to the conversation at the appropriate time or when the person is done speaking.

Sometimes, we can walk into meetings with unfair assumptions or preconceived notions thinking we already know what people are going to say. If we tune them out or shut them down because they say something differently or don’t say what we want them to say, we can rob ourselves of opportunities to clarify, learn, and receive information differently because we failed to listen.

Adapted from “Shut Up and Say Something: Business Communication Strategies to Overcome Challenges and Influence Listeners,” by Karen Friedman (Praeger).  Friedman is a professional communication coach and speaker who spent two decades as a television news reporter and anchor at major market television stations. See more at www.shutupandsaysomething.com

I hope you are not in that situation.

The best situation is for you and your boss to work out a protocol for a regular schedule of one-on-one meetings whenever you can. Here are some best practices that you can apply if you don’t work in the same location as your boss:

Keep each other informed about when you’ll both be at a central location, such as the organization’s headquarters, so you can schedule in-person one-on-one time. Schedule occasional in-person meetings when it is convenient for you to visit your boss in his or her remote location or when it is convenient for your boss to visit you where you work. If you have access to web-cams, schedule a regular one-on-one meeting via the web.

In the absence of in-person meetings and two-way web-cams, make good use of regular telephone conferences and various forms of electronic mail, such as instant messaging and email. Unfortunately, too often when people communicate primarily via telephone and e-mail, they neglect scheduling regular one-on-one conversations and, as a result, their communications tend to be disorganized, incomplete, and random. Here are some best practices for using telephone and e-mail to communicate regularly with your boss:

• Schedule regular one-on-one telephone calls, then honor them

• Prepare in advance of the one-on-one call. Send your boss an email recapping what you’ve done since your last one-on-one and the steps that you followed to get those things done, and any lingering questions or issues you have about those actions. Then outline what you plan to accomplish next, the steps you plan to follow, and any questions you may have about these upcoming actions

• Ask your boss to respond your email in advance of your one-on-one conversation to help you prepare even further, for example, by including any other items in the agenda that he or she would like to cover

• Send your boss a reminder via e-mail or text message 30 or 60 minutes before the scheduled time

• Immediately following the call, send your boss an email recapping what you both agreed on in your conversation: the actions you need to take, the steps you plan to follow, the date and time of your next scheduled phone call, and the promise to send an agenda prior to the next meeting

Sometimes when I teach these best-practices in my seminars, someone will raise a hand and ask, “My boss works across the hall from me, but our entire relationship is conducted by telephone and e-mail. What should I do about that?” My personal view is that conducting face-to-face conversations–at least once in a while–is much better than conducting your management conversations solely by telephone and e-mail. I suggest following the same best practices I offer for employees and bosses who work in a different location. And maybe once in a while, walk across the hall and try for a face-to-face meeting. You can poke your head in and ask, “Did you get that e-mail I just sent you?”

But if most of your communication is through telephone and e-mail, well, that’s better than nothing. And there is an advantage: When you and your boss are communicating by e-mail, you are creating a paper (or electronic) trail. Save those e-mails and you’ll have record of your ongoing dialogue with your boss about your work. If the e-mails are organized and thorough, then you might be able to print them and use them as check-lists, or use them as the bases for crafting work-plans, schedules, to-do lists, and other tools to help guide you in your work.

Always remember, whether you are working across the hall from or across the globe from your boss, the fundamental goal of one-on-one meetings is communicating with your boss about the work you are doing for him or her. Over time, you and your boss will use your growing knowledge of each other to guide YOU during each conversation. But in general, you’ll talk about the work that is going well, poorly, or just fine. Maintain an ongoing dialogue with every boss about the four management basics:  What is expected of you. The resources you need to meet those expectations. Honest feedback of your performance and guidance on how to adjust it as necessary. What credit and reward you will earn for your hard work.

With each boss, you will have to decide what to focus on and discuss at each one-on-one. Before your meetings, you should ask yourself the following: Are there problems that haven’t been spotted yet? Problems that need to be solved? Resources that need to be obtained? Are there any instructions or goals that are not clear? Has anything happened since we last talked that the boss should know about? Are there questions that need to be answered by your boss?

At the very least, in these one-one-ones, you need to receive updates on your progress. Get input from your boss while you have the chance. And think about what input you should be providing to the boss based on what you are learning on the front line. Strategize together. Try to get a
little advice, support, motivation, and, yes, even inspiration once in a while.

Bruce Tulgan is founder of Rainmaker Thinking, a management training firm. Bruce is the author of the classic Managing Generation X as well as the best seller It’s Okay to be the Boss, and many other books. Bruce is reachable brucet@rainmakerthinking.com and his free weekly workplace video is available at www.rainmakerthinking.com.

Below is a conversation that shows how easy it is to fall into the trap of owning a problem that could be shared were it not for one party’s reliance (in this case Marion’s) on personal pronouns. In my classes and workshop sessions, I’ve referred to this as “taking the whole monkey on your back.”

Marion: What you just said is very upsetting to me.

Bill: In what way?

Marion: I wasn’t doing anything and you came along and insulted me.

Bill: Aren’t you being oversensitive?

Marion: I’m not oversensitive.

Bill: Seems that way.

Marion: If you were me, you’d think differently.

Clearly Marion is taking quite personally something that Bill has said. The problem is less that she is doing so than that her expression of those feelings refers back so repeatedly to herself.  In so doing, she completely fails to place the burden of apology or explanation on Bill.  Instead, she talks only about herself and her own point of view.

Hearing herself use “I” and “me” more than one or two times should be a signal to her that she has personalized a problem instead of letting Bill know that he said something he shouldn’t have. Since she fails to notice, Bill is able to keep the focus on her rather than on the problem.

Too often, people allow their feelings, or their reactions, to become the focus of a discussion rather than the real issue. It’s more likely to occur with women, but men are not immune.  It usually allows the person who’s caused the offense to wriggle out of having to explain, apologize, and change his or her ways.

“Why don’t you like my approach?” may seem like an innocuous question, but it invites rejection of your proposed action.  Rewording the question to something like “What would you change in that approach?” removes any personal reference.  The focus then becomes the issue at hand, rather than who’s introduced it.

In contrast to the conversation above, imagine if it had happened this way:

Marion: Bill, you went too far this time.

Bill: Did I upset you?

Marion: What you said was way over the line, by any standard.

Bill: You’re awfully sensitive.

Marion: Don’t let it happen again, Bill.

In this group of responses, Marion has not once mentioned her emotions, and there are no references to “I” or “me”.  She has placed the focus squarely on Bill’s actions and on what he needs to do to correct them.

The next time you hear yourself using “I” or “me”, pause to think. As a rule, don’t talk about being upset, frustrated, or annoyed, nor should you in some other way imply that you’re feeling emotional about the issue at hand. Instead, go after the issue: “This has happened before and it can’t happen again”; “This is a mistake that needs to be fixed”, and “Let’s look at what happened here and make sure it doesn’t happen again”- these are a few effective ways of keeping the focus off your emotions and on the problem.

Kathleen Kelley Reardon is the author of COMEBACKS AT WORK: Using Conversation to Master Confrontation. Copyright © 2010 by Kathleen Kelley Reardon, PhD. Posted with permission of HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

If you said “No way!” to the above questions, you’re not alone. A new study by research giant Ipsos Loyalty found that only about 30 percent of us feel loyal to our employers. About the same number of us feel that our employers have earned our loyalty.

So why does loyalty on the job matter?

Because our loyalty as employees impacts our happiness at work. According to the landmark Ipsos Loyalty Study, employees with the highest levels of loyalty to their job also characterized themselves as happiest.

What Is Loyalty—and Why Does It Matter?

Loyalty is the realization that we need each other to be whole and happy. It’s well known that people who are happy at work are happier overall.

Loyalty is the force that binds us together and the cornerstone of stability in our relationships. If you were to go to work each day feeling no connection to your coworkers or clients, it’s fair to say that you would feel isolated and alienated.

Loyalty is also accepting the bonds that our relationship entails, and defending and reinforcing those bonds. In a workplace context, this means pulling for your company, supporting coworkers, and reinforcing good relations with customers and clients.

Finally, loyalty is the sense that something belongs to us–e.g., our team, our products, our company, our brand.

How to Be a More Loyal Employee

The study discovered a one-to-one correlation between loyalty and happiness. In other words, if you’re not loyal, you won’t be happy. Therefore, it’s in your own best interest to improve your “loyalty skills” on the job.

Here are five ways to boost your proficiency in each skill set:

Give support and assistance. Build a reputation for being someone who supports coworkers in the form of giving technical help, brainstorming, problem solving, coaching others in your area of expertise, and sharing contacts. Help a peer do a better job, struggle less, learn a new skill, impress the boss, or gain new respect with clients and coworkers. Watch how your relationships, status, and sense of purpose improve.

Give time and attention. Take an interest in the workplace challenges and projects of your peers. Even though you don’t work in a cubicle, do you go through the day with blinders on? Take time to ask coworkers questions about what they’re working on and what their challenges are. Listen well, and pay attention to their concerns. Show empathy, and demonstrate that you understand their issues and really “get” their point of view. Next time you need help with a daunting project or problem, the people who feel that you listened to them will be there for you.

Offer recognition and encouragement. Look for opportunities to give sincere compliments to coworkers when they’ve done an excellent job on a task, or when they demonstrate superior skills, say, while leading a meeting or doing a presentation. Instead of being withholding or competitive, show fellow employees that you’re cheering them on. Feeling as though “we’re all in this together” raises morale and makes for a fun and healthy workplace culture.

Make a sacrifice or commitment. Offer to stay late, do a hated task, or stand up for a coworker’s unpopular viewpoint in a controversial workplace debate. Show colleagues that you are willing to put yourself out for them. The benefit to you are many. For one, it’s good office politics. For another, they could be making recommendations or putting in a good word on your behalf next time you’re up for a promotion or a peachy assignment.

Be reliable and trustworthy. Follow through on what you say you’ll do, and be someone whom others can count on–to confide in, to lean on, or to be there in a pinch. Demonstrate to your coworkers that you are consistent and competent–and that you are willing to be the go-to person when required. This quality boosts your reputation and has endless payoffs.

In our every-man-for-himself work environment, developing more loyalty toward fellow employees will give you a new sense of fulfillment and meaning in your job. When others view you as loyal, they will return these qualities and gestures in kind–and the quality of your workplace relationships will soar.

Timothy Keiningham and Lerzan Aksoy are leading experts in loyalty management, and coauthors of a new book, Why Loyalty Matters (BenBella Books, 2009, www.whyloyaltymatters.com). They are also creators of LoyaltyAdvisor (www.LoyaltyAdvisor.com), a web-based tool that analyzes your loyalty across multiple dimensions proven to link to personal and professional success.

There’s no issue on the supply-side. New studies show that disability payments are increasing at “an accelerating pace,” with a 51 percent rise in people on Social Security Disability Income over the last decade, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The cause? More and more, it’s unhealthy lifestyles – namely poor diets and not enough exercise. Still, back and joint problems, cancer and heat disease remain among the top reasons for disability. Some companies try the carrot and stick approach to promoting good health.

But because of the high cost of replacing personnel and fewer qualified candidates to fill open positions, companies are investing in accommodation.

Osram Sylvania Inc., a Massachusetts-based lighting manufacturer, is one of the companies the story featured. The Siemens AG unit allowed one of its employees to work part-time from home for the year she fought breast cancer.

“I found the working very therapeutic because it was the one thing that took my mind off cancer,” says Tricia Chambers.

The company is accommodating its sick or disabled employees by offering flexible hours, telecommuting and even new assignments. While such moves are common in urban areas, the majority of employers are on the trailing edge of adopting these policies.

Although it’s progressive to invest in accommodation after an employee has already fallen ill, savvy companies are looking for more ways to support their workers in staying healthy. By implementing policies of accommodation, the company stands a better chance of tapping into talented people who may have otherwise not opted to work there.

Here are some promising resources for job seekers and employers.

Recent research and a U.S. court case have spurred interest in the issue.

About 54 million people, or 37 percent of American workers, have been bullied at work, according to a September 2007 survey conducted by Zogby International on behalf of WBI. Bosses account for 72 percent of bullies, and women are targeted more frequently, according to the survey: 57 percent of those bullied are women. When the bully is a woman, 71 percent of the targets are women.

Canadian research released earlier this year by M. Sandy Hershcovis, of the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, and Julian Barling, of Ontario’s Queens University, found that workplace bullying is more detrimental than sexual harassment.

In April, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled in favor of a former medical technician who sued a surgeon for emotional distress and assault. Garry Mathiason, chair of the corporate compliance practice group at labor and employment law firm Littler Mendelson, says in a BusinessWeek story that the ruling drew national attention as a result of the courts acknowledging workplace bullying both as a phenomenon and as legal terminology.

Is workplace bullying an overlooked – or overblown – problem, and is there a viable solution?

Gauging the Problem

Tory Johnson, founder and CEO of Women for Hire in New York, says workplace bullying isn’t “overblown at all. Bullying is often very subtle and hugely damaging.” Bullies run the gamut, she says, from those who scream and make scenes, to the less-obvious types who cast dismissive glances and smirks during meetings, prompting the target to hunker down and never speak up.

Quiet bullies can be more damaging than their loud counterparts, “even if they’re going largely unnoticed by the higher ups,” she says.

Stress hinders the health of 45 percent of bullied targets, according to the Zogby survey. The WBI says employers also pay a price, for example, in turnover costs, stress-related payments for workers’ compensation and disability, and the exodus of talent.

Dr. Cheryl Dellasega, a professor at Penn State University, says workplace bullying is a real problem, and the differences in male and female bullies are clear. “I’ve heard hundreds of stories by victims, bullies, and bystanders (those who watch and may participate) across a wide variety of workplace situations, from hospitals to day care centers to schools and corporations,” she says. “Some situations are handled well, others end up in litigation.”

But some say bullying can be blown out of proportion.

“I acknowledge that some behavior would fit the description of bullying. However, in most adult workplaces what people call bullying often turns out to be discourtesy and contentious behavior, and sometimes it is not even those things, but just behavior the complainer didn’t like,” says Tina Lewis Rowe, a professional development speaker and trainer in Denver.

What’s an Employer to Do?

The WBI says bullies are a reflection of how America operates. “Our society is highly aggressive and competitive. Bullies embody these two popular tactics. Hostility is more normative than the exception. So, bullying/abuse/psychological violence at work is positively embraced more often than despised,” according to the Institute.

Finding a solution, then, might mean bucking the norm – but it’s not impossible, experts say.

Dr. Gary Namie, co-founder and director of the WBI, says bullying is endemic to the workplace; it’s not simply caused by a few bad seeds. So employers should write impersonal policies holding all employees to the same standard, he explains. Because bullies often spend years forging close alliances with higher-ups, Namie says, this absolves higher-ups from having to punish their “buddies” – it simply becomes a matter of enforcing policy.

Others agree employers shoulder much of the responsibility when it comes to quashing bullies.

“Unfortunately, employees are usually not in a position to stop bullying. Generally speaking, if bullying continues in the workplace, it is because it is tolerated at the highest levels of the organization,” notes executive career coach Cheryl Palmer, based in Silver Spring, Md. “If employers realize the toll that bullying takes on the organization, not just specific individuals, they should make it absolutely clear that bullying will not be tolerated.”

What’s an Employee to Do?

If employees feel they’ve been targeted, Namie advises against going to HR, which will ultimately side with management. He instead offers a three-step plan:

1. Give the problem a name. This helps you stake a legitimate claim and avoid blaming yourself.
2. Take time off. Examine your mental and physical health. Investigate your legal options. Gather information about the effects of workplace bullying on an employer, including turnover rates, lost productivity and absenteeism. Start looking for a new job.
3. Expose the bully. Offer the information you gathered in step two, making the case to your employer that the bully is too expensive to keep on staff, and avoid getting emotional. Give your employer one chance. If they side with the bully due to personal friendship, for example, then leave, and tell everyone you’re leaving because you’ve been bullied out.

Women for Hire’s Johnson agrees that employees should take action. “The only solution is for people to feel empowered to speak up – to not be fearful of being labeled the rat,” she says. “Many times employers don’t know this exists, or there’s no track of it, so it’s easy to look the other way. Co-workers might know, but often they’re too intimidated to stick their neck out for someone else.”

Kristina Cowan is a freelance writer who specializes in education and workforce issues, but she’s covered everything from Barcelona’s polyglot culture to teen pregnancy to senior citizens’ lifestyles. Kristina has a master’s degree in journalism and a bachelor’s degree in speech, both from Northwestern University.

Shave off ten minutes — say, from 11:00 a.m. to 11:10 a.m. — with no interruptions allowed. Period. No phone calls. No visitors. No e-mails.

Establish this pattern over the course of a week. At 11:00 a.m. every day, announce you’re taking a Quick 10. If you need an official reason, say it’s to catch up on work, fine-tune a report, return e-mails. Whatever. Action is the strongest course. Ultimately, the magic of your Quick 10 is that it’s your business.

When people interrupt, tell them how it’s going to be: “I’m in the middle of my Quick 10. I’ll be right with you.” What’s next? See how many more precious minutes you can grab for yourself before the interruptions overwhelm your dam. Maybe in a couple of weeks, your Quick 10 becomes a Quick 20. If you’re skilled, in a month, you’ve gained a quick half hour. Once your immediate coworkers realize there are ten minutes when you’re not interrupting them, the clever ones will see the light and want their own Quick 10.

Why does this work? It announces that what you do is important enough that for some period during the day, you cannot be interrupted.

Some will resent your new freedom and come at you from a variety of angles. Minute Man will want those minutes for himself. Bulldozer will try to bully you out of taking the time. Flimflam will try to fool you into doing a specific task that will benefit him during that time. Relax.

Yes, you may need to devise special strategies for one or two of the Ten Least Wanted. But most of the people wanting to horn in on your Quick 10 will soon tire of the game and move on to more susceptible victims.

But if someone barges into your office and wants to talk during your time, refrain from rudeness. Let him know that you’ll connect with her as soon as you can — following your Quick 10.

Bosses, of course, are another category. They have an uncanny knack for “needing you” at the most inopportune times, and require the most training and careful handling. But the smart bosses will gradually recognize that your Quick 10, however long it becomes, is a benefit to everybody.

Feel free to let your boss take credit for inventing the Quick 10 productivity concept — which in his case will quickly stretch into an hour.

So what do you do with your Quick 10? Early on, just bask in the freedom. Own it. Make it yours. Maybe you’ll drink some coffee from a real mug. Read the New York Times or Yahoo! Sports, or catch a YouTube video. Perhaps you’ll work on your fantasy-football team or write a page of that movie script. And there’s nothing wrong with getting some solid work done.

Jonathan Littman and Marc Hershon are the authors of I Hate People! Kick Loose from the Overbearing and Underhanded Jerks at Work and Get What You Want Out of Your Job (Little Brown & Co). Jonathan is the coauthor of The Ten Faces of Innovation. Marc Hershon is a branding expert who helped name the Blackberry, Swiffer, and other hit products. Visit their business blog, http://www.IHatePeople.biz.

She replied, CCing the company’s entire China staff and asking him to remember his manners. “Even though I’m your subordinate, please pay attention to politeness when you speak,” she wrote.

The Chinese press caught wind of the exchange and because the president was from Singapore, it sparked a fury about cultural imperialism. He later resigned.

The anecdote, recounted in a new book about e-mail etiquette, exemplifies how even seemingly innocuous notes can have a major impact. For those communicating across cultures and time zones with any regularity, being sensitive to what you say and how you say it is essential.

For instance, criticizing a worker via e-mail is another common mistake in cross-cultural relationships – such comments need to be made in person or by phone only if absolutely necessary.

In their book, “Send: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home,” authors David Shipley and Will Schwalbe offer numerous practical tips to make sure that directives don’t make you sound like you’re a dictator. Shipley is Op-Ed page editor at The New York Times and Schwalbe is editor in chief of Hyperion Books.

Avoid using “please” in e-mails because, they write, it “conveys a sense of exasperation” and almost always sounds obnoxious. Consider this: “can you please remember to FedEx the reports on Monday?” Sure, you think you’re being polite but you sound condescending.

Attempts at sarcasm can also go wrong, with literal readers misinterpreting attempts at good-natured fun. Lively communication can be mistaken for mean-spirited snarkiness.

Some of the best advice, especially for those who write to people in foreign countries, is on page 108. In a section titled, “Mirror, Mirror,” they say copying, or echoing, is a great way to develop a relationship with a near or far-flung colleague.

“Whether it’s a greeting or a closing, you need to look for ways to build rapport with your correspondent by sounding like him or her.”

The problem for all of us is that e-mail became the primary way we communicate before we had the chance to figure out how to use it effectively.

U.S. office workers spend at least 25 percent of their day on e-mail, report the authors. With this in mind, the very best suggestion Shipley and Schwalbe make is that we should send fewer e-mails.

Experts who study emotional intelligence, also called EQ for emotional quotient, gather data proving that highly empathetic rather than insensitive people excel in business or personal relationships. The emerging ‘science’ of EQ is gaining traction among recruiters and HR executives, many of whom screen potential hires for these ‘soft skills’.

What hasn’t been well understood until now is how intense emotions, especially in the workplace, impact productivity and spread from person to person.

“We engage in emotional contagion,” contends Sigal Barsade, a Wharton professor who studies the influence of emotions on the workplace. “Emotions travel from person to person like a virus.”

Can your bad day – or bad attitude -psychologically infect your co-workers? In turn, can a co-worker’s bad vibes negatively affect your productivity?

“Everybody brings their emotions to work,” adds Barsade. “You bring your brain to work. You bring your emotions to work. Feelings drive performance. They drive behavior and other feelings. Think of people as emotion conductors.”

Barsade is the co-author of a paper entitled, “Why Does Affect Matter in Organizations?” (“Affect” is another word for “emotion” in organizational-behavior studies.) The answer: Employees’ moods, emotions and overall dispositions have an impact on job performance, decision-making, creativity, turnover, teamwork, negotiations and leadership.

Stanford Prof. Robert Sutton, author of “The No-Asshole Rule” summarizes the lessons of his book this way:

• The rule of avoiding working with, or hiring, jerks is adopted by many organizations to avoid disharmony in the workplace
• You shouldn’t allow staff to get away with anti-social or ‘oddball’ behavior; as such behavior is likely to cause office conflict
• There is an argument for allowing just one ‘asshole’ in your office based on deviance studies. These cite that the presence of one such individual leaves everybody else is better off, as they see how not to behave.

Unconsciously, it appears that we also lead not just with our ideas and actions but also with our emotions. Do you have any co-workers who rub you the wrong way? Is there anything you can do about it?

In response to heavy losses earlier this decade, management sought to balance the books by reducing quality and costs. They cut back on customer service – often in petty ways – and slashed pay for airline workers, and then, despite high fuel prices, they slowly crawled back toward profitability. And investors are happy – air travel is growing by 7 percent each year.

Of course, I’m neither a shareholder nor an employee – I’m just an economy-class customer struggling to work on a six hour cross-country flight. I’m average height; my knees are buckled against the seat in front of me. If the guy in front of me leans back any more my laptop keyboard will be on my chest. And if I don’t work, I won’t get much sleep tonight.

The government regulates safety, but personal comfort and productivity is a free market issue. “We do not mandate comfort. It is up to airline how they want to configure seats,” says Alison Duquette, FAA spokeswoman. “As far as how many seats an airline can cram in there or configure it’s up to them.”

Possibly most coach passengers on this Boeing 767 yearn for hot food, comfortable seats, personal video systems or other perks. But I don’t – I want workspace. I want legroom, headroom and Net access, too. And I want a power charger for my laptop.

The airlines could charge extra for this. Think of “workspace service” as business class without warm cashews, place mats, free-flowing booze and high-touch service. Would there be demand for this? I look around and see at least one in four passengers with their laptops out, and although some just watch DVDs, most appear to be working uncomfortably. Have you ever jockeyed for elbow room with the passenger next to you?

In a feeble sop toward road warriors, United charges $50 for so-called “economy-plus” seats. I checked it out: there are a lame 2 inches more of legroom and no power outlets; American Airlines has power outlets, but on the whole is no better. As economy class goes in the U.S., JetBlue is the most comfortable for cross-country flights. Virgin Atlantic and British Airways have premium economy seating but from what I have read about it, the passengers are underwhelmed.  

ISO standards for personal space exist for cubicle workers, why not for commercial air passengers? In a global economy, workers move around more often than ever before. Losing a couple of days of work is no joke. 

What working passengers really want – and need – is more space. Internet access and power plugs would be nice, too.